Son of Lassie

In England during World War II, the rough collie Lassie and her mischievous pup Laddie are devoted to their young master, Joe Carraclough, who is training in the Royal Air Force. Joe's father Sam is kennel man for the Duke of Rudling, and he is put in charge of a British Army war dogs training school on the Duke's Yorkshire estate. Lassie is too old for military service, but the day before Joe begins active duty as a flight navigator, Laddie is enrolled in the school. He lacks the discipline of the other dogs, but is resourceful.

Laddie follows Joe to the air base, 40 miles away. For a reconnaissance flight over Nazi-occupied Norway, Joe's pilot arranges to have Laddie on board. The plane is hit and Joe bails out with Laddie in his arms. On the ground, the two are separated. Joe finds refuge in a church while Laddie is cared for by some children; the Nazis search for them both.

Determined to return to England, Joe makes his way cross-country with the help of the Norwegian underground. All the while, Laddie is trying to find him. Joe is captured by the Nazis, but has escaped by the time Laddie tracks him to the prison camp. The Nazis use Laddie to find Joe; reunited, the pair escape. They complete the journey home to the Rudling estate, where Lassie and Sam Carraclough have been patiently awaiting them, along with the Duke's granddaughter Priscilla, who intends to marry Joe.

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• Pal (credited as "Lassie") as Lassie and grown-up Laddie
• Peter Lawford as Joe Carraclough
• Donald Crisp as Sam Carraclough, Joe's father
• June Lockhart as Priscilla, the Duke of Rudling's granddaughter
• Nigel Bruce as Duke of Rudling, grandfather to Priscilla
• Donald Curtis as Sgt. Eddie Brown
• Robert Lewis as Sgt. Schmidt
• Nils Asther as Olav
• William Severn as Henrik
• Leon Ames as Anton
• Fay Helm as Joanna
• Terry Moore as Thea (as Helen Koford, her birth name)

{{div col end}}

Produced under the working title, Laddie, Son of Lassie, the film originally had Elsa Lanchester playing the role of the adult Priscilla. Shortly after filming began, June Lockhart took over the role. It was the first movie filmed using the Technicolor monopack method.Haines 2003, p. 28.

Principal filming took place from May 22 to mid-November 1944, in various locations throughout western Canada, including Vancouver Island and Christopher Point in British Columbia and Banff National Park in Alberta.[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3066/son-of-lassie#film-details "Original print information: 'Son of Lassie'."] Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved May 31, 2016. Other locations included Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Los Angeles in the United States.Collins 1993, p. 61.{{cite book |last1=Limbacher |first1=James L. |title=Four Aspects of the Film |date=1978 |publisher=Arno Press |location=New York |isbn=0405111258 |page=35 |url=https://archive.org/details/fouraspectsoffil0000limb_j0q9/page/35/mode/1up |access-date=18 January 2024}}

The wartime airfield scenes were shot at the air base at Patricia Bay which is now Victoria International Airport.[https://www.bcam.net/yyj-history/ "YYJ History."] British Columbia Aviation Museum. Retrieved August 20, 2019. The aircraft used included Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters, Bristol Bolingbroke and Lockheed Ventura bombers of the Royal Canadian Air Force.Farmer 1984, p. 226.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, John Charles Reed sued MGM in October 1947 for plagiarism, claiming the film script was based on his 1943 story "Candy". The jury disagreed and the suit was dismissed.R. R. Bowker, The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures: Film Beginnings. 2. (1941).

Son of Lassie reportedly popularized the name "Lad" for male dogs.Junker 2005, p. 108. Pal, the original male collie who played Lassie in Lassie Come Home (1943) played Laddie. A 20-year-old June Lockhart, whose screen career had consisted of bit parts, had a more meaningful connection to the iconic Lassie story when in 1958, she took on the role of Ruth Martin, who adopts orphan Timmy (Jon Provost) in the long-running TV series Lassie.Collins 1993, p. 6.

In 2010, Film Score Monthly released the complete scores of the seven Lassie feature films released by MGM between 1943 and 1955 as well as Elmer Bernstein's score for It's a Dog's Life (1955) in the CD collection Lassie Come Home: The Canine Cinema Collection, limited to 1000 copies. Due to the era when these scores were recorded, nearly half of the music masters have been lost so the scores had to be reconstructed and restored from the best available sources, mainly the Music and Effects tracks as well as monaural ¼″ tapes.{{cite web|url=https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm/CDID/459/Lassie-Come-Home-The-Canine-Cinema-Collection/|title=Lassie Come Home: The Canine Cinema Collection (1943-1955)|website=Film Score Monthly|accessdate=August 20, 2019}}

The score for Son of Lassie was composed by Herbert Stothart. Many of the Norwegian scenes use themes from Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, notably the Piano Concerto and the Peer Gynt Suite.

Track listing for Son of Lassie (Disc 2)

1. Main Title/Laddie (beginning)* - 2:14
2. Mischievous Puppy/My First Cake - 3:42
3. Say It/Rudling Kennels - 3:24
4. Training Routine (Stothart–Castelnuovo-Tedesco) - 2:41
5. That’s Where His Heart Is/Lowering the Colors - 2:20
6. Bull Terrier/Infraction of Regulations - 3:13
7. Laddie at Airfield & Waiting Dog (Stothart–Castelnuovo-Tedesco) - 3:21
8. Planes Taxiing/Plane Overdue - 4:52
9. Parachute Landing (Stothart–Castelnuovo-Tedesco) - 4:20
10. Underground (Stothart–Castelnuovo-Tedesco)/Disconsolate Laddie (damaged) (Stothart–Castelnuovo-Tedesco) - 4:14
11. Occupied Village/Locked Storage - 3:40
12. Injured Dog* (Castelnuovo-Tedesco)/Of Viking Ancestry - 5:49
13. It Should Be Christmas - 0:54
14. Frantic Dog (Castelnuovo-Tedesco) - 4:43
15. Leading the Blind (Stothart–Castelnuovo-Tedesco) - 1:15
16. Reprise (Stothart–Castelnuovo-Tedesco) - 1:14
17. Passport - 2:13
18. It’s Laddie (Stothart–Castelnuovo-Tedesco) - 0:40
19. Seeking His Master (Stothart–Castelnuovo-Tedesco) - 1:41
20. Clown Sergeant/The Escape (Stothart–Castelnuovo-Tedesco)/Through the Rapids (Castelnuovo-Tedesco) - 8:34
21. Back to the Yorkshire Moors - 0:38
22. Final Episode - 2:04
23. Overseas Title - 0:15

Contains Sound Effects

Total Time: 68:48

Son of Lassie was released to theaters on April 20, 1945. A VHS home video release came on September 1, 1998. It was first released to Region 1 DVD by Warner Home Video on August 24, 2004."New on DVD." USA Today, August 27, 2004, p. 04e. {{ISSN|0734-7456}}. It was re-released on November 7, 2006 in a three-movie, 2-disc set along Lassie Come Home and Courage of Lassie.

Bosley Crowther in The New York Times of June 11, 1945, felt the sequel to Lassie Come Home fell short of "being a worthy heir to the champion."Crowther, Bosley. [https://www.nytimes.com/1945/06/11/archives/the-screen-back-on-the-screen.html "The Screen; Back on the Screen"] The New York Times, June 11, 1945.

Variety characterized the principal actors as "excellent" but the film was "sticky sentiment, and flamboyant adventures, carry[ing] sufficient interest to move it along.""Review: Son of Lassie." Variety, 1945.

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Refbegin}}

• Collins, Ace. Lassie: A Dog's Life, The First Fifty Years. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. {{ISBN|978-0-14-023183-0}}.
• Farmer, James H. Celluloid Wings. Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: Tab Books, 1984. {{ISBN|978-0-8306-2374-7}}.
• Haines, Richard W. Technicolor Movies: The History of Dye Transfer Printing. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-1809-1}}.
• Junker, Reynold Joseph Paul. Subway Music. Bloomington, Indiana: Iuniverse, 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-595-36846-4}}.

{{Refend}}

• {{rotten-tomatoes|son_of_lassie}}
• {{IMDb title|0038097}}
• {{TCMDb title|3066}}
• {{AFI film|24584}}

{{S. Sylvan Simon}}

{{MGMLass}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Son Of Lassie}}

Category:1945 films

Category:Films shot in British Columbia

Category:American aviation films

Category:Films directed by S. Sylvan Simon

Category:Films scored by Herbert Stothart

Category:Lassie films

Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films

Category:1945 drama films

Category:Films shot in Alberta

Category:American drama films

Category:Films set in Norway

Category:Norwegian campaign

Category:World War II films made in wartime